What is ‘Online Peer Support - Partners of People with ME/CFS’?

Online Peer Support for Partners of People with ME/CFS is an eight week online support group for 8 - 10 people with a professional facilitator hosted by Emerge Australia. It takes place in our virtual meeting room over Zoom. We have 4 core themes for our online community groups: Patient Support, Carer Support, Community Building and Learning. The aim of this group is to help you to connect with other people who have a shared experience of caring for adults with ME/CFS.

Why should I attend?

Accessing peer support - talking to people who 'get it' - is one of the primary requests that we receive at Emerge Australia. We have designed this program to provide a safe space - with a facilitator - where people who care for their partner who lives with ME/CFS can meet and talk for an hour every other week on a Thursday afternoon.

What will happen in the group?

In this group you will find:

• Professional facilitator to guide conversation
• 8 facilitated meetings - every other week for one hour
• Option to continue to meet after the course - your facilitator will help you to establish ground rules and come up with a plan to continue with the group
• Social interaction - this group is not structured therapy and will try not to dwell on negative or medical chat
• The group will have access to a private sub-forum on the Emerge Australia Community Forum where chat can continue between sessions. 

Session dates and times

Morning Classes (for info) - All timings are as per Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra (AEDT or AEST according to start date of group)

• 10:45am session open
• 11:00am group meeting commences
• 12:00pm group meeting ends

For more information or if you have questions, please contact [email protected] 

Meet your facilitator

My name is Carolyn and I am a passionately committed therapist in private practice in Whittlesea Victoria. I’m also an enthusiastic group facilitator for Emerge Australia. As a registered Counsellor, I work with families, couples and individuals and specialise in supporting people to live their best life, work through tough issues and learn loving self-kindness.

I am an experienced speaker, having run workshops and groups for several years. I also supervise, train and mentor other Counsellors nationally.

I am an avid reader, a passionate horse and dog owner, wife and mum. I enjoy yoga and mindfulness practices and bushwalking. I am a cancer survivor, having experienced stage 3 Breast Cancer in 2014 which has assisted me to gain increased reserves of insight and compassion for myself and others.

I look forward to welcoming you to the “Carers of Adults with ME/CFS” online group commencing in February 2022. I am so excited to meet you all!